If you are reading this, you are more than likely you are a parent or guardian looking to protect your children, whether it be from inappropriate content or too much screen time. Fortunately, like its predecessor and the best parental control software currently available, the Xbox Series X offers a wide range of parental controls, ensuring your child can game safely even when you’re not around. To set them up, just follow the steps below.
One of the amazing things about the Series X is that if you previously owned an Xbox One console, many of your settings can easily be carried over to your new console — all you have to do is connect your Microsoft account.
First things first: You have to have your own Microsoft account in order to set up parental controls. You can create an account on your Series X or through Microsoft’s website. Whichever method you choose, however, you will need an email account to start.
If your child already has an Xbox account, they can use that account. If not, you can use a separate email to create an account. If you do not have another email address to use, you’ll be prompted to create a new email when creating your child’s account. To do so, press the Guide button on your controller, select Add New, and follow the on-screen prompts. Then, go back to the Parent or Main account.
To manage your child’s account, you have to add said account to your family. To do that, press the Guide button, select Settings under Profile & System, and select Family Settings under the Account tab. Then, select Manage Family Members, followed by Add to Family. Once you add a person to your family, you’ll have access to their Privacy & Content Restrictions.
The Series X allows you to enable a host of restrictions, which you can set for each person in your family. Under Privacy & Online Safety, you can manage permissions for Xbox Live, apps, messages, and data collection. Here, you can also restrict gaming and app content based on your child’s age. With web filtering, you can even designate which websites your child can visit.
The restrictions are only part of the package. Microsoft also offers an Xbox Family Settings app for Android and iOS, which allows you to view family activities directly on your phone. The app is a neat way to monitor content without logging on to your Series X in order to do so. With the app, you can select which games your child can play, manage their daily screen time, and carry out a host of other actions without picking up a controller. Talk about convenience.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.